NYCHA says asbestos is gone from Marcy Houses walls and heat is back. What it has told the Council about heat outages and Marcy repairs

The city says air tests at Brooklyn's Marcy Houses have come back clean after a steam leak coated parts of two buildings with asbestos-laden residue. Heat and hot water were back on in all nine affected buildings by early Friday, Gothamist reported.

The residue landed on the outside walls of 502 and 504 Marcy Ave., two of the 27 buildings in the Bedford-Stuyvesant complex. NYCHA officials said the steam came from an exhaust vent on an underground line connected to mobile boilers, Gothamist reported Thursday. Some residents told the outlet the steam had been rising for weeks and leaving white powder on their windows.

Why it matters to residents: asbestos is a known cause of cancer when its fibers are inhaled. The same equipment problem also cut heat to hundreds of apartments as the weather turned cold.

What the city says it has done

• Testing. All 24 air monitors in apartments along the affected wall tested negative for asbestos on Friday. So did tests at the complex's daycare, management office and the outside of two other buildings, the city said. NYCHA spokesperson Andrew Sklar said air monitoring outside will continue "until remediation is complete."
• Relocation. Households in 23 apartments along the walls were offered temporary moves. Four relocated through Oct. 31, and one more chose to stay with family, the city said.
• Cleanup. The city's Department of Environmental Protection has cleaned the sidewalk, cars and building facade but had not finished the courtyard as of Friday, Gothamist reported.
• Heat. Council Member Chi A. Ossé said earlier in the week that nine buildings had lost heat because of the problem. NYCHA restored heat to 234 apartments in four buildings by Wednesday. The last five were back on just after midnight Friday after the authority installed mobile boilers, Gothamist reported.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on WNYC Thursday he had no update yet but that NYCHA residents' needs are a top priority for his administration.

What our records add

NYCHA has promised the Council fast heat repairs. At the Public Housing Committee's March 24 budget hearing, NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt said the authority resolved heat outages in an average of 6.8 hours last heating season. That is well under the 12-hour target in NYCHA's agreement with federal housing officials. She said all outages had been fixed within 24 hours (13:32). At a June 2 budget hearing, a NYCHA official said heat outages were restored in under eight hours. The official said buildings without working boilers are served by mobile boilers (5:14:09). This week, the Marcy outage stretched across several days for some buildings.

Marcy's problems were raised in March. At the same March hearing, a Council member described gas outages at the nearby Tompkins Houses and "an issue" at Marcy. The member asked NYCHA to commit funds to the developments and to guarantee repairs. NYCHA said it could not confirm how city funds would be used, and promised to follow up directly on both developments (1:10:19).

Asbestos has come up at recent hearings. At a Sept. 22 Public Housing hearing on NYCHA and PACT work order practices, testimony described asbestos-containing material at a development being encapsulated rather than removed. At an Oct. 27 hearing on NYCHA senior centers, a NYCHA official said that when floor tiles might contain asbestos, staff don't touch them, and the repair becomes a larger job.

No pending bill covers NYCHA mobile boilers. We found no Council bill this term on NYCHA's mobile boilers or its asbestos procedures. Int. 498, from Nantasha M. Williams, would increase oversight of certified asbestos investigators citywide. It has four sponsors and has had no hearing since Jan. 29.

What's next

The city says it will keep testing outdoor areas and finish cleaning the courtyard. The relocation offer ran through Oct. 31. The Committee on Public Housing, of which Ossé is a member, has not announced a hearing on heat or the Marcy incident. Residents with heat complaints can call 311 or NYCHA's Customer Contact Center.